John Edwards and Hillary Clinton got caught musing privately on that question by FoxNews after a televised debate on Thursday night. While they went about discussing the issue in the wrong venue, I think they have a point.

Such talk, of course, has the trailing candidates, like Dennis Kucinich, up in arms over the whole affair. But, one has to wonder where the utility is in having eight candidates on the stage taking turns responding to the same questions. By the forth or fifth, you're going start getting long-winded versions of "me too."

Edwards proposes splitting the debates into two randomly selected groups of four. I would go one further and have the different candidates go head to head in one-hour long debates over a series of nights. We've got almost six months until the first primary votes. That would be easily enough time for everyone to face everyone else.